By ALESHA CAPONE
MANY people have been looking forward to the opening of the new $90.5 million Acute Services Building at Sunshine Hospital.
But little Molly Paskins is still too young to take in the building’s 128 inpatient beds, outpatient clinic rooms, a 26-cot special-care nursery, 30 same-day medical beds and additional post-natal beds.
However, Molly – the daughter of Yarraville residents Trina and Harry Paskins and sibling to sister Hayley – has spent six weeks of her life so far in the new hospital centre.
Ms Paskins said Molly was born 10 weeks early at the Royal Women’s Hospital and then transferred to Sunshine Hospital for secondary care.
Molly was born early after doctors discovered Ms Paskins had developed HELLP-Syndrome, a pre-eclampsia condition which can threaten both a mother and baby’s life.
To lower the mortality rate from HELLP-Syndrome, a baby can often be delivered early, before a mother develops symptoms like liver rupture or stroke in the later stages of pregnancy.
Luckily, both Ms Paskins and Molly are now doing well, and the proud mother is full of praise for the new Sunshine Hospital facilities and medical employees.
“They treat all the babies like they are the only babies in the world and I can’t speak highly enough of the staff down there,” she said.
“It will be a lovely day to take her home, but I’ll also shed a few tears on the day because the hospital staff have become like a family.”
Western Health CEO, Associate Professor Alex Cockram, said the birth rate at Sunshine Hospital had increased by 18.6 per cent this financial year.
“The new Special Care Nursery is a wonderful, bright and attractive ward with all the facilities necessary to provide a supportive environment for the babies and their families,” she said.
